After much prevarication, I have started a new campaign....

The campaign is the Aragonese, in XL, Hard, Early, GA mode...I have got to say, I have found a few things quite different in XL - not only new factions, but new borders as well! Hmmm....we'll see how bamff copes with this!

Okay, without further ado, here are my first nervous (and you will note pretty tenative) steps onto the XL field....

Bamff’s Aragonese Escapade

Chapter 1 – A Kingdom is Born (1087 - 1130)

The year is 1088. King Sancho I has sat upon the throne of Aragon for just over one year. His country is a tiny land, perched on the northernmost part of the Iberian peninsula. So small is Aragon, that many in Europe do not afford it the status of a kingdom at all – it is, after all, just a single province, a veritable minnow in the political sea of Europe.
Sancho has greater problems to deal with than the poor esteem in which his kingdom is held by others. Aragon’s small size dictates that its economy is also small, and the Aragonese, in relative terms, are poor. His subjects are hungry for land and trade. Sancho is well aware that if he can deliver unto his people some measure of land, wealth, and glory, their loyalty will be assured. He is also acutely aware that if he cannot deliver these needs, he will not long wear the crown.
With these considerations in mind, Sancho had taken an enormous gamble. He gathered every last one of his available soldiers, and had marched north across the Pyrenees to the rich lands of Toulouse. Nominally this was a province belonging to the king of France, but it was relatively isolated from the remainder of his territories, joined by the narrowest of land bridges to the province of Isle de France. The isolation of Toulouse, Sancho had reasoned, made the province vulnerable, and ripe for the plucking. He was still somewhat nervous, however – information on the strength and deployment of the French forces in Toulouse was far from complete, and after a long and arduous march from their homes in Aragon, his men were clearly fatigued. Today was the day that he would meet the French forces. Would his own men be ready to fight when the time came? Would they be able to match the Frenchmen, who he had no doubt would be well trained?
He reproached himself mentally for allowing such doubts to surface, and surveyed his forces. He had brought with him 1 regiment of archers, under the command of Don Ferdinand Mendez, 1 regiment of feudal men at arms under Lord Granvelle, and 1 regiment of urban militia under Don Beltran Enriquez. The Aragonese king shrugged his shoulders. Urban Militia? Not “real” soldiers, by any stretch of the imagination, but better than peasants….at least he hoped they would prove so….and then there was the question of Enriquez’ loyalty. This had been the subject of much recent conjecture at court.
Sancho raised himself in his stirrups and craned his neck, peering intently into the distance, where blue flags could now be seen quite clearly fluttering above the French force sent to meet him.
“Too late to contemplate turning back now,” he mused, as he raised an arm to direct his men forwards. All the while he continued to survey the French. “What are they thinking?” wondered Sancho, as he noted the Frenchmen were not marching towards him at all. Indeed, they were marching away from the Aragonese, and at some considerable pace. The French were evacuating the province – Toulouse had been won, with nary a drop of blood spilled! As the cheers of his men rang in his ears, Sancho knew that his job was merely beginning – but he was off to a fine start indeed!
That same year, the Aragonese emissary despatched by Sancho in 1087 successfully negotiated an alliance with the Castillian Spanish. Both Christian nations shared a burning ambition to cleanse the Iberian peninsular of the Moorish invaders, the Almohads, but curiously, both also shared a deep mistrust of the other. It would remain to be seen whether this alliance was one which would last.
That having been said, the alliance was important to Sancho, because it allowed him to focus on his territorial ambitions to the north and south without having to be quite so concerned for the security of his western borders.
Sancho had left Toulouse and returned to Aragon almost immediately after the province had been seized. In 1090, he had raised an army of sufficient size to march west to Navarre. This territory was at that time held by the Basques, and they had no intention of relinquishing their freedom without a struggle.
Sancho’s invading force numbered 181 men, the force being comprised of 1 squadron of royal knights, 1 regiment of spear (in the form of feudal sergeants), and 1 of archers. The Basque force is almost twice their number, although quantitatively inferior, comprising mostly of peasants.
The Basques take position atop one of the imposing mountains that fill the tiny province of Navarre, forcing the Aragonese to march uphill to meet them. Sancho leads his men up the steep slope some way away from the Basque army, then marches across the slope towards them, with his archers in the van, and his knights at the uppermost part of the slope. The Basque spearmen break ranks, charging at the Aragonese archers. 12 of their number are brought down by the time they reach the Aragonese line. As the spearmen close, the Aragonese archers melt away behind the advancing line of feudal sergeants, and battle is joined. With the Basque spearmen now fighting for their lives, Sancho leads his knights to charge into the Basques from the rear. The spearmen waver in the face of this onslaught, and flee. Showing superb disciplne, Sancho’s knights, and feudal sergeants regroup rather than pursue, and the archers once again move forwards to fire upon the remaining Basque forces. The pattern of the first engagement is now repeated, though this time it is 184 peasants charging the Aragonese line rather than 88 spearmen. The result is even worse for the Basque second wave. As the last routers are ridden down by Sancho’s knights, a light snow begins to fall. Not a single Basque has escaped the field – 167 lie dead, and 133 are now prisoners of the Aragonese. Only 15 Aragonese soldiers have perished (all of them spearmen), and the extremely one-sided nature of this battle sees Sancho’s stature grow even further in the eyes of his people.
While King Sancho was engaged in Navarre, Lord Dampierre of France has sought to reclaim Toulouse for the French crown. The province is defended by Lord Granvelle. The two armies are of extremely similar composition and experience, and whilst the battle hangs in the balance for much of the day, it is Granvelle’s men who triumph, turning back the invading Frenchmen. 118 Frenchmen have lost their lives in attempting to retake Toulouse, and 72 sons of Aragon in defending the province. The ferocity of the fighting is underlined by the fact that a mere 7 Frenchmen are taken prisoner.
Further good news arrives at court late in 1090, with word that El Cid of Valencia wishes to pledge allegiance to the crown of Aragon. King Sancho grants El Cid a gratuity of 3,400 florins to assist in developing the defences of Valencia.
Sancho had proven himself a more than capable battlefield commander in Navarre, and he now set about proving himself to be every bit as skilled a diplomat as a soldier. Alliances were soon secured with King Phillipe of France in 1091, King Inge of Sweden in 1092, King Malcolm III of Scotland and King William II of England in 1093, King Wladyslaw I of Poland and King Roger I of Sicily in 1095, and in 1096, the Portugese also accept an alliance with Aragon. All the while, Sancho continued on his dual programmes of military and economic building, turning his once tiny impoverished one-province kingdom into an affluent Mediterranean trading nation. By the time of his death in 1111, King Sancho had indeed achieved his goals. He had secured and expanded the borders of his kingdom. He had increased the wealth of his people enormously, and he had laid the foundations upon which later kings of Aragon could build further. The kingdom of Aragon had indeed “arrived” on the Medieval European political stage.
With the passing of King Sancho, his son Sancho (the first king of Aragon had shown imagination in many areas, but sadly not so, it would seem, in the naming of his first born) was crowned Sancho II.
Sancho II soon showed himself to be capable of continuing in the footsteps of his great father. The extensive public works program undertaken by Sancho II soon earned him the reputation of being a “great builder”, but few initially noted the slightly different direction that the building works of Sancho II were taking. A very pious man, the new king sought to ensure that all Aragonese provinces could boast a resident bishop. Sancho II was most anxious to continue, and to complete the “Reconquista”, and in 1129, he successfully petitioned Rome for the right to launch a crusade to the province of Granada, one of the two remaining Almohad held provinces on the Iberian peninsula. After almost 40 years of peace, Aragon was once again going to war. Though none dared to give voice to their concerns, there were many at court who harboured doubts about this latest campaign. Time would soon tell if Sancho’s crusade was to spell success or disaster for his rule…